Orphans Part 2

Mary followed a dirt road, using the trees flanking it on either side to remain hidden until the forest gave way to large, unnatural clearing. A small town with thatched roof buildings and a rickety, wooden fence surrounding its perimeter sat dead center in the middle of the clearing. A small farm could be seen on the other side of the clearing as well as a large, stone building with stained glass windows. The setting sun made three, suspicious mounds which formed an equilateral triangle surrounding the city more apparent as their shadows stretched towards the forest. Mary scanned the area for any other notable landmarks before she worked on making her way back to camp.

Mary stopped walking. “I know you are there, Birch.”

“I s’pose there’s no hidin’ from ya anymore is there?” A tree nearby revealed itself to be Birch when it spoke.

“I know what to look for now. Jesper is not around anymore and I dismantled the machine spreading these crystals around.” She held up one of the damaged crystals. “I am unfamiliar with most of these plants and materials. How long will the forest take to recover?”

“Should’n’ be long now.” Birch coughed. “I’ve been hard at work.” Birch’s tree-like arm extended towards the crystal.

Mary handed it to him. “I believe I understand how these work. They capture all the magical energy they come into contact with until they accumulate too much energy, which is when they disperse all of their stored energy and turn into common materials.”

“Sounds like ya know yer stuff. Didn’ take ya long at all ta figur’ that out.” Birch handed the crystal back.

“How much energy would be generated by a crystal this size if it reached capacity? I have yet to find a safe enough place to test it.”

“If it weren’t fer that there hole in the cen’r, it’d be enough ta lev’l a small farmin’ settl’m’nt such as Woodside back there.”

Mary turned the crystal in her hand. “So this would provide a yield roughly half the size?”
“‘Yield’? What’re ya plannin’ on doin’ with that?” A look of suspicion grew on Birch’s bumpy, knotted eyes.

“Something I hope I do not need to do.” She returned the crystal to her pocket then started to walk off. “Thank you, Birch.”

“Don’ do anythin’ to dangerous ya hear.” Birch waved as his body faded into a nearby tree.

———————————————————————————————————————

A staff-like brown blur, wielded by Vivian, swung at Mary from behind a tree.

Mary grabbed the staff and violently yanked it out of her hands as she continued to walk forward, knocking Vivian onto the ground.

“HEY! What was that for!?”

“You swung first.”

“You left me with these… disgusting creatures.” Vivian pointed at 4 sleeping children who were huddled together.

“Are you going to stand up? Sleeping on the dirt is bad for you."

“Hmph.” Vivian folded her arms, refusing to stand back up.

Mary walked past her.

“Ahem.” Vivian held out her dainty hand as though she were stretching

You are more difficult to deal with than they are? Mary thought, grabbing onto Vivian’s hand as she walked past her and started to drag her along.

“Not like that. You are supposed to treat me like I’m your princess.” Vivian pulled her hand away, stood up, and stomped on the ground.

Mary ignored her.

“Fine, but I’m not sleeping with you tonight.” Vivian huffed and crossed her arms.

“I was not planning on it.” Mary pointed to one of two empty sleeping bags. "I set up alarms and we will be leaving early tomorrow.”

Vivian looked at the bag, then back at Mary who was already in bed, then at her staff on the other side of Mary. She took one step towards it before she saw Mary’s glare.

“Just relax and go to bed.” Mary dropped a wand next to Vivian’s staff.

Vivian patted herself down and couldn’t find her wand anywhere. “Now what am I going to do now that I can’t use that to put myself to sleep?”

“You have slept without it before, you can do it again.”

“Fine.”

———————————————————————————————————————

By the time any of the others had gotten up, breakfast was ready and Mary was busy studying the soil and plants like she did every morning.

The four orphaned children sat on the ground, staring at the food hesitantly, like they had never been allowed to have hot food for breakfast before. Fiivon started dishing out food for them while Cassius worked to put away all of their equipment.

Vivian rubbed her eyes then noticed the pleasant smell of cooked potatoes and dried meat. She got out of bed, grabbed her wand and staff, then shambled over to the pot next to where Fiivon stood.

“Good morning miss Vivian.” Fiivon handed her a plate of the same dish they had for breakfast the past couple of days.

“I hate travelling.” She started eating the food.

“Hello miss.” One of the kids came up to her, only to be shooed away immediately.

“Why’d we have to get up so early. I need some jitterfruit tea… or some coffee.”

“We didn’t pack any of those with us miss Vivian." Fiivon sighed.

Vivian glared at him. “Well why not?”

“We didn’t think any would be needed. If you want it that badly, we might be able to get some from Woodside on our way through there.”

“Ugggh. I doubt they have any.” Vivian looked at Mary. “She’d probably keep it all to herself so she could make poison or some other insane new thing anyway.”

“I’m sure if you asked, she would let you use some miss.”

Vivian looked at Fiivon like he had gone completely mad. “Why do you like her so much anyway?”

“She rescued me… and she helps me out a lot. I feel like I could learn a lot about magic from her as well. She's the best.” Fiivon’s eyes beamed.

Cassius walked over. “Her magical capabilities are not something I would count on.”

“Oh.” Fiivon looked at the dirt. “I’m sure she could still help me improve anyway; she knows a lot of things and she tells them to me.” He brightened back up.

“That’s nice.” Vivian said, completely disinterested.

“You seem to be upset at us a lot of the time, why do you keep traveling with us if that’s the case?” Fiivon’s line cut into Vivian.

“I’ve been travelling with Cassius for a while, and if you’ve seen Mary without her clothes on or what she can—”

“I… I think I’ve heard enough miss.” Fiivon rubbed the back of his head and looked away.

After she was finished taking samples, Mary walked over to the children. “Are you all okay?

“Yeah.”

“A lot better now that we’ve had lots of good meals.”

“I’m scared.”

Mary patted the child’s head. “What are you scared of?”

“I don’t want to go back, it was scary back there.”

Mary smiled and hugged her. “Everything is going to be okay. I will make the problems go away.”

The child hugged her back.

Vivian watched with a disgusted look on her face, then turned around to see Fiivon staring at her. “What do you want?”

“Nothing.” He looked away.

“Then stop staring.” Vivian looked back over at Mary. “I thought we were supposed to get going!”

Mary didn't acknowledge her.

“Are you four ready to go?” Mary asked.

“Yeah.”

“I am now thanks to you.”

"I wonder how they'll react when we come back."

"They'll definitely be surprised."

“Follow me.” Mary made sure the campfire was out then started walking towards Woodside.

Cassius stayed back with Vivian. "It has been quite some time since you you've acted this animated about something." 

"I don't need you to point that out."

Cassius could only barely see Mary and the others now. "We should get going. They'll be out of our reach if we linger too long."

"She better know what she's doing."